New art. Very serious business.

BATMAN! They’re from Pictochat on the Nintendo DS last night while we were sitting in the theater waiting for The Dark Knight to begin. Photographed by Alina, who also drew the lovely sailboat scene and such.

The Dark Knight was marvelous!!

One of my new roomies has seven cats. We were rather nervous about there being so many, but they are all very sweet and also energetic and fun to play with. Then when they get tired from playing they sleep together so lovingly!! I love them!

Glimpses of my new backyard…

Unfortunately at this time it’s too hot, sticky, and buggy to properly explore. But I can tell it’s going to be fun in the fall!

Today marks one week in my new home. I’m renting, with my boyfriend and two of our friends. I moved in last Friday, and took the week off work to fix the house up. It was a week of painting, cleaning, organizing, shopping for important house things, and building furniture from IKEA. It was pretty stressful, but now the house is ready to relax in! (And time to get back to artwork!)

It’s pretty cool, just around the corner from where I lived before with my parents. Like my old home, it’s on 5 acres and we’ve had deer with fawns in the backyard daily. I also spotted a tortoise yesterday. I love spending time outside and being in nature so I’m very thankful to have found this place!

Here are some new paintings…

The tropical birds in the paintings above are the Jamaican Tody, the Rufous-crested Coquette, and the Resplendent Quetzal. Click to see them bigger!

How’s life? I’m moving a week from today, so I’m pretty busy with that and also excited! But mostly, I miss Fria.

My baby, my Fria, passed away last Friday.

She was at the vet being taken care of, but she didn’t make it. She had ingested some toxins, and a few days later when the blood work came in they found out she had diabetes and her kidneys were failing, which was why she couldn’t handle the toxins.

I had blood work done on her yearly and they never found diabetes, but it definitely explains some things even though she really seemed healthier than ever. I’m coming to terms with things… I’m glad she went without struggling, that to the last moment she had the best life a cat could have. Just the day before we went on a walk in the woods, she was running and playing.

She was the best cat ever, seriously perfect. We took walks outside and she was always by my side. When I woke up in the morning she would be waiting for me outside my door. She would sit on my desk whenever I was on the computer or working on art. And every night at dinner she sat with us and begged for food (she loved food a bit much). Even when I took a shower she liked to come in the bathroom and curl up on my clothes. When I would come home from somewhere I would look for her first thing, pick her up and she would give my nose one lick like a kiss and touch my face with her paws, and talk. She was always talking A LOT. We were completely devoted to one another. She loved my Mom too, she wasn’t always nice to other people, but she trusted my Mom and I completely.

I love her and I’ll miss her forever. It’s really hard being without her, but I am very thankful for the fourteen years we had together.

I made these peanut butter cookies after reading about them on Inside A Black Apple (recipe here- from Cottage Living). They are peanut butter cookies with a delicious cheesecake-like filling sandwiched in between. They are yummy, incredibly decadent, and everyone loves them!

I snuck up on a wild rabbit during my afternoon walk.

How cool are rabbits? I had a bunny when I was little and she was super cool. She got out a couple times, and it was amazing because we got her back! This is amazing because we live on 5 acres and she could have easily run off to live with the wild bunnies and never be seen again.
Here I am with her, scrunching up my nose in attempts to look like a bunny myself.

I put some new stuff on Etsy today, pocket mirrors and Maine Chickadee note cards:

I originally made the Maine card design as a gift for my family. There is a lot of family history in Maine, with fond memories of visits and a general love of the state.

Thursday I went to Long Point Park, and spent the day on an island in the Indian River Lagoon (close to Melbourne).

It was a beautiful day, the weather was awesome even if I did go home with a sunburn!

There were a lot of birds, fish, and dolphins (yay dolphins!). We spent a while searching for seahorse with a net and bucket. Apparently you can find them there, but we only found small fish and a lot of shrimp (which was still pretty interesting). Kayaking was the best part of the day, but we also spent a while exploring the island.